


A Contentious Reunion

by Marjojo02



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Bondage, Break Up, Confessions, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Episode: s01e09 The Waterbending Scroll, Episode: s03e14-15 The Boiling Rock, Episode: s03e17 The Ember Island Players, F/M, Getting Back Together, Jealousy, Kissing, Knifeplay, Makeup, Missing Scene, Non-Consensual Bondage, Post-Episode: s03e14-15 The Boiling Rock, Reunions, Rope Bondage, Sarcasm, Series Finale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-26
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-17 13:33:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29717922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marjojo02/pseuds/Marjojo02
Summary: Missing moment from Zuko's reunion with Mai during the final episode.What if Mai had some questions about Katara's presence in the palace, and had seen The Boy In the Iceberg?Takes place in the When It's All Over AU but you don't have to read that story to understand.
Relationships: Aang/Katara (Avatar), Katara & Zuko (Avatar), Mai/Zuko (Avatar), Sokka & Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 41





	A Contentious Reunion

**Author's Note:**

> Author's note:
> 
> This scene takes place during the final episode of the show, just after Zuko and Mai's brief reunion scene.
> 
> This story is a kind of spinoff from my story When It's All Over, but you don't necessarily have to read that (very long) story to understand this one. In the chronology of that story, this scene takes place in the middle of chapter 6. The characters mention this conversation in chapters 16 and 29.

Zuko couldn't believe it. Mai was in his arms again. After he shut her in the interrogation room on the Boiling Rock, he'd assumed she'd never forgive him, but amazingly, it seemed she had. She had helped him with his robe, and kissed him, and poked his chest threateningly, and now he could feel her silky hair against his cheek.

He felt a pang in his stomach, and remembered what he had been about to do before she'd come to his room. "Want to eat something? I told Katara I'd meet her for dinner after a nap..."

Mai pulled away. "She's here?"

"Yeah. She wanted to help me fight Azula." he explained. "Good thing she came too, she saved my life."

"That sounds cozy." She crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes.

"Uh, not really." He glanced to the side, confused. "Riding on a sky bison is not very comfortable at all."

"That's not what I mean."

"Then what do you mean?" Zuko asked, perplexed.

"Azula took us to see a play on Ember Island."

He shut his eyes, humiliated. "Oh no."

"The Boy in the Iceberg. You've heard of it?"

"I've seen it. Three hours of my life I'll never get back."

"Then you know why I'm upset about it."

"I have an idea, but you'll have to be specific. That play showed a lot of dumb shit I did. And even more I didn't. It was incredibly inaccurate."

"Oh, so you didn't tie up any girls?"

Zuko froze. He knew she could read the guilt on his face.

"What the hell, Zuko!" Mai smacked him on the chest with the back of her hand. He winced; she'd struck near his wound. "You had better explain to me what that bondage scene was about."

"I...tied up Katara so she couldn't get away and I could use her as bait to capture the Avatar." He confessed.

"That's a pretty messed up thing to do."

"I know. I apologized to her." Actually, had he? He'd apologized a lot, but maybe not for that specifically. "I know they made it look really...sexy in the play, but it wasn't like that."

"You expect me to believe that, when later in the play you're making out with her, and then you leave me to join her group?"

Zuko's eyes widen in panic. "Oh no. You have the wrong idea about me and Katara."

"You just said she's here. And that she saved your life." She repeated, as if amassing more evidence.

"Yeah, but only because I saved hers first!"

Mai's eyes widened in barely suppressed rage.

Zuko pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to think of a way to reset. "But that's not-she didn't come here for me! She wanted to fight Azula to get revenge for the way my sister hurt Aang. Those two are...I guess they're not together now, but give them about a week, assuming he survived, that is-"

"You expect me to believe a girl my age would go after a bald child when you're around? With your...hair, and" she eyed his chest, as if remembering covering it with his robe just a moment ago, "muscles?"

"Katara hated me for most of that time!" He insisted. "When I showed up, she argued against me joining them. Then as soon as she could get me alone, she got in my face and threatened my life!"

"Sounds hot."

"No, it was terrifying! She really meant it. She barely spoke to me for weeks, except to insult me, until..." he trailed off, realizing that detail might not sound so good for his case either.

"Until what?"

He sighed. "Until I took her on a little trip."

"Oh, you went on a vacation together? How romantic."

Zuko just kept digging himself a bigger hole. "No, I took her to kill the guy who killed her mom. She didn't go through with it."

"That is so touching. What about that scene in the dungeon in Ba Sing Se?"

"That was before you and I got together." He pointed out, though he doubted that fact would exonerate him. "And it was nothing like in the play. We just talked."

"About what?"

"About our moms. She had this special water she was going to use to heal my scar. But then Uncle and Aang came. And whatever connection I had with Katara, it clearly wasn't enough to make me choose her over Azula. Unfortunately."

"So you wish you had gotten together with her, instead of me?"

"No! I mean I wish I'd joined the Avatar's group earlier, because it was the right thing to do."

"Then you and I would never have dated."

"And being with you meant so much to me. I can't even say how much it hurt to leave you..." He reached out for Mai.

She stepped back, evading his touch. "It wasn't all that fun for me either."

"I'm so sorry. But I promise you, Katara had nothing to do with it. Back then we were barely civil."

"And now?"

"We're just friends. I swear. You're acting like I did on Ember Island, jealous for no reason."

Mai scoffed. "I have a lot more reason than you did. And at least I'm not starting fights with strangers, like a dumb ass."

"You have circumstantial evidence you're willfully choosing to misinterpret. What I can't figure out is why."

"You dumped me in a note, Zuko." She dropped her arms from around herself, weary. "When I saw that show, it actually made a lot of sense. You'd been planning all along to leave and join the pretty little Water Tribe girl. You were always just killing time with me, just having fun."

"That's not true at all! When I was here before, and we were together, I was really trying to be happy. It just...didn't work."

"I'm so sorry I wasn't enough for you." Mai's voice dripped with bitterness.

"No! Please don't misunderstand me!" Zuko pleaded. "With you, I was happy. I was only happy with you. But I couldn't go along with my father's plan to destroy the Earth Kingdom. If I'd stayed, I would have had to participate in that. The only reason I joined Azula at Ba Sing Se in the first place was to win my father's approval, and when I finally had it, I realized I didn't need it anymore. That was why I left."

"You could have told me that and I would have gone with you. What your father wanted to do was horrifying."

"I was trying to protect you. To make it clear to my father that you had nothing to do with what he would see as treason. I was afraid you would get questioned and detained, so I left you a get out of jail free card."

She rolled her eyes. "And then you infiltrated a jail, put yourself in a position where I really had to protect you, and made sure I got sent to jail."

"I know. I'm sorry. Thank you for saving me. For saving all of us."

"Why the hell did you do something so stupid?"

"I was trying to help Sokka."

"The Water Tribe boy?

"Yeah. His dad got put in jail and he wanted to break him out. I just thought it would go a lot more smoothly. Sokka's the one who planned all the Avatar's movements over the last year. I figured if he could keep one step ahead of me, and Admiral Zhao, and Azula for a year, he must be pretty smart. The others on the team talk about him like he's this tactical genius, so I thought he must have had some brilliant plan. Turned out, he's just really lucky."

"You're the one who's lucky." Mai muttered snidely.

"I know. Why did you do it?" He asked softly.

She met his eyes, and in hers he could see sadness, fear, and unbearable vulnerability. "I couldn't just let her kill you." She admitted, laying down her armor.

He ventured to draw her into his arms again, and miraculously, this time she let him.

"Please don't worry about me and Katara." Zuko begged. "I don't like her that way. She's cute, I guess, but you're gorgeous. She's too...optimistic for me. I missed hating the world with you. You're the only girl I've ever really wanted to be with. Please give me a chance to make it up to you. To earn your trust back. I couldn't stand it if you hated me."

"I don't hate you." She touched his left cheek and pulled him down to her for a kiss. "I don't hate you." She repeated, as he tightened his arm around her waist and they kissed again, deeper. He cradled her neck in his hand and tried his best to infuse his lips with the truth of the words he'd just spoken. Here was another second chance: he felt humbled and unworthy, yet unashamed, determined to prove himself deserving of the honor of her love. Something told him it wouldn't be a pointless chase for a mythical being, but perhaps the most fulfilling journey of his life.

Her stomach grumbled this time, interrupting their embrace.

"Did they feed you in the prison?" He asked, only half joking. He remembered the guards' rations at the Boiling Rock; he'd eaten better when scavenging in the Earth Kingdom.

"Yeah, my uncle made sure of it." She reassured him. "Not as good as palace food, though."

"Can we go down to eat now? I promise Katara's not that bad. A little pious and bossy sometimes, but a good friend."

Mai shifted uncomfortably. "I threw a lot of pointy things at her."

Zuko laughed. "And she blocked them all, didn't she? I did worse, and she got over it. Plus, you saved her brother and dad. The two of you can bond over how foolish I am. C'mon."

As they left his room, the firebender had the urge to make a flirtatious wisecrack of that cursed bondage scene. "You know, if you wanted to, you could always...tie me up. Maybe that would make you feel better about that terrible play. You could get your revenge on me for that letter."

Mai scowled at him.

"Bad idea? Or just too soon?"

His girlfriend shook her head. "You tie one girl up for real, you lose the privilege of ever using ropes for fun. It's tainted now."

"Fair enough." Zuko held up his hands in surrender. But he knew her weakness. "What about knives, though?"

She raised an eyebrow at him. "We'll talk."

**Author's Note:**

> Author's Note: subscribe to my author alerts for my next Maiko story, Weathering the Storm, a four-chapter fic that takes place in the same universe as this one. It will be posted on Friday as usual!


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